Feral workers?

[Polonius]

On 2 or 3 occasions in my last game I had small bunches of workers go feral on me. The first thing I knew about it was when I got a stern warning from a friendly neighbour to get my “troops” out of his territory. They had actually moved there and had not just been standing in the wrong spot when his borders expanded. So I moved them, but later I noticed that another bunch had done the same thing and were quite deep into his territory before they got the same warning. Were they POWs making a break for home, just the AI getting flaky or what?Anybody else had this experience?

Also, what do you think is the best way to deal with large numbers of surplus workers which sometimes build up during a conquest? When I over-ran Babylon and razed their cities I was getting around 4 workers per city and ended up with more than I knew what to do with. Thanks.

 

[EvanCiv]

Originally posted by Polonius
Also, what do you think is the best way to deal with large numbers of surplus workers which sometimes build up during a conquest? When I over-ran Babylon and razed their cities I was getting around 4 workers per city and ended up with more than I knew what to do with. Thanks.

I send them back and have them join cities.

I generally don't have them join a city I took from the same culture (i.e., I don't add Babylonian workers to a city that already has a bunch of Babylonian citizens - it increases the chance of a culture flip).

Right now, I am playing on a map that has a continent with three 'wings'. I am fighting the Japanese down one wing and culturally assimulating the Chinese up the other. I have Japanese workers join Chinese cities and vice versa. Also, I have some of my workers in the Japanese area to immediately add a few citizens of my own to cities I take from them (and immediately build/buy a temple). It works fairly well - I have a city whose area overlaps the Japanese capital but it hasn't flipped (4 japanese citizens, 2 Egyptian and a temple).

 

[Protaxis]

On 2 or 3 occasions in my last game I had small bunches of workers go feral on me. The first thing I knew about it was when I got a stern warning from a friendly neighbour to get my “troops” out of his territory. They had actually moved there and had not just been standing in the wrong spot when his borders expanded. So I moved them, but later I noticed that another bunch had done the same thing and were quite deep into his territory before they got the same warning. Were they POWs making a break for home, just the AI getting flaky or what?Anybody else had this experience?

I had a similar experience during my current game. I was going right along, when all of a sudden my Babylonian neighbor told me to move my troops out. It turns out that it was just a lone worker standing there, and the little red dot was on him indicating his moves were over for that current turn. I clicked on him so I could access him during the next turn, and ended up finally moving him out.

It's weird, because I know for sure I didn't set anyone to automate, and he was so far away -- and doing absolutely nothing, as far as I know, except maybe walking around -- that I still wonder how he got there and what he was doing.

Also, what do you think is the best way to deal with large numbers of surplus workers which sometimes build up during a conquest? When I over-ran Babylon and razed their cities I was getting around 4 workers per city and ended up with more than I knew what to do with. Thanks.

Ahh, slaves! I send the slaves back deep into my land to build roads, irrigate, build fortresses, build/clear forests, clear jungles, build mines, and clear pollution. I never let them mix and mingle with my citizens, so they are generally always working. When not working I "fortify" them in 5-10 man stacks all throughout the country. They never sit idle for long, though, as there's usually always something for them to be doing, whether it's packing them onto a boat and shipping them off to foreign soil to build fortresses for the war effort, or filling in all those ugly unused squares with pretty forestry, or re-building pillaged roads or what have you.

(edit: minor punctuating)

 

[Romanichine]

Polonius: Workers in auto-mode may go through ennemy lands for reasons such as connecting a city to the Capital, or just go there to improve the land around it.

You should not put your workers in auto-mode. The AI is so stupid that it loses a lot of time. A good example of this is when five workers takes five turns to go to a spot, because they all think making a road on this mountain square is the best improvement around. Now when they arrive on the square, one will start building the road and guess what the others will do? They'll start looking for the next best improvement around which may be another five turns away. And they'll repeat the process over and over.

Trust me, one managed worker is better then three automated workers. Auto-mode is for lazy people, and will always get lesser results.

As for what to do with slaves - I believe they surpass the real workers because you do not have to pay them. Having them joining cities is, I believe, a mistake. Yes, I know they take twice more time than normal workers at everything, but in numbers they will do the job in one turn.

Slaves should be used for land improvement and pollution cleaning - Always.

--
Roman.

 

[Polonius]

Many thanks for all the comments and suggestions. It's great to get some new knowledge, and I'm glad to find that I'm not alone in finding straying workers.

 

[EvanCiv]

Originally posted by Romanichine As for what to do with slaves - I believe they surpass the real workers because you do not have to pay them. Having them joining cities is, I believe, a mistake. Yes, I know they take twice more time than normal workers at everything, but in numbers they will do the job in one turn.

Slaves should be used for land improvement and pollution cleaning - Always.

Well, you are entitled to your opinion, but I think "mistake" and "always" are too strong of characterizations.

I usually play an industrious civ and generally have lots and lots of fast workers (especially once some grassland-rich cities reach 12 and hospitals are a long way off). The slowpokes from other civs just aren't worth having around.

I send them back to a city, have that city make a worker, and immediately have the other civ's worker join the city to replace the fast one that was just made. Its like simply converting them to fast workers - I have a new, fast worker and the city that made it isn't short a citizen even a single turn.

And because I believe that the proportion of a cities' citizens that match a civ that you have cultural overlap with is part of the 'cutural flip' equation, adding a third civ's citizens keeps that proportion down and helps to prevent flipping.

Maybe these are "mistake", but they seem to be working pretty well.